


The Knot You Call Love

by Liara_90



Category: RWBY
Genre: Blindfolds, Developing Relationship, Established Relationship, Explicit Consent, F/F, Fluff and Smut, Lesbian Character, Lesbian Sex, Light Bondage, One Shot, Oral Sex, Rope Bondage, Sexual Experimentation, Trust, Vaginal Fingering, Warm and Fuzzy Feelings, Yuri
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-10
Updated: 2015-11-10
Packaged: 2018-04-30 22:04:51
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,101
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5181356
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Liara_90/pseuds/Liara_90
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The dorm room to themselves, recently-coupled girlfriends Ruby Rose and Blake Belladonna have an evening of quiet cuddles planned. But when Ruby catches a glimpse of some risqué ropework in Blake's "Ninja's of Love", questions are going to be asked and answered. An exploration of the relationship between Ruby and Blake, and the trust that underlies it all. Light-hearted bondage and developing relationships ahead.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Knot You Call Love

**Author's Note:**

> This aims to be a slightly more nuanced (dare I say realistic?) exploration of a developing relationship that happens to have some kinks thrown in.

Teams RWBY and JNPR had long reached an agreement that, while unspoken, nevertheless carried the weight of law. Whenever two or more members from one team were absent, be it for vacation, field-training, or hospitalization, the remaining teammates were invited over to the neighboring dorm for a sleepover. The tradition had begun in their first year, when a combination of field exams and fevers had left Ruby Rose the sole, forlorn occupant of her dorm, and an observant Pyrrha Nikos had invited her over to JNPR's room for the evening so she didn't spend the night feeling so alone. Incidents became patterns became traditions, mostly as an excuse to goof off and watch movies (and, nobody ever said aloud, share beds), ever-strengthening their bonds of friendship with late-night shenanigans.

Which was why it was so unusual that Ruby and Blake were keeping their dorm room to themselves that night.

Neither Ruby nor Blake were keen to draw attention to their deviation from accepted protocol. Weiss had been called away to deal with some minor family emergency - something about a will, last Blake heard - and Yang had signed up to shadow a Huntress in the field for three days of one-on-one tutoring. Which meant there was no one to glance sideways, to cock an eyebrow, to make double-entendres or suggestive comments at the two Huntresses presently nesting in Ruby's suspended bed. The dorm was almost unnaturally quiet, silent apart from the tapping of Ruby's fingers on her Scroll or Blake occasionally turning a page. The two girls were seated beside each other, shoulders pressing gently together, a thin stretch of yukata keeping skin from touching.

The reason Ruby had turned down the implicit sleepover invitation hung unspoken in the air; her girlfriend-of-several-weeks respectful of Ruby's cautious romantic course. They'd kissed for the first time less than a month ago - _really_ kissed, not simply a chaste peck on the cheek that accompanied some piques of exhilaration. Ruby's nervousness had melted away as Blake had pressed their lips together, then she was all eagerness and desire, greedily demanding kisses from Blake while generously supplying more in return. But Ruby's inexperience weighed heavily upon her, and she _really_ didn't want to mess things up. Blake herself was more than happy to indulge Ruby, to see their relationship flourish like a flower's petals slowly unfolding, all the more beautiful for its pace. Of course they'd already done _it_ , Ruby being far too curious and eager to put off making love to Blake, but they still advanced with cautious deliberation, both girls trying to suss out the contours of their relationship.

And when Blake turned a page, she was suddenly _very_ eager to know if they were at the 'comfortable looking at porn next to your girlfriend' stage yet.

 _Ninjas of Love Volume 16 - The Dungeons of Asanawa_ , was, in Blake's defense, not _quite_ pornography, though that was the kind of a nuanced distinctions she was none-too-eager to have to make right now. The latest manga issue revolved around a group of female shinobi who found themselves captured and interrogated by an evil shōgun, who seemed to take a sadistic pleasure in restraining the semi-naked ninjas in intricate rope bondage. The author-illustrator was obviously aware of the scenes' fetishistic appeal, as several panels were devoted to showcasing the intricate ropework, not to mention what they did to the captives' breasts. Blake belatedly realized that it was not just a few pages but _most of the rest of the book_ that were covered with illustrations of harnesses and crotch ropes. Not that Blake had anything against that, but whether it was a good idea for Ruby to see…

Before Blake could finish mentally debating whether to hide the book or not, she glanced at her girlfriend and saw gunmetal eyes, wide with curiosity, scanning the page. Blake figured one of two things could happen. _One_ , and probably the best-of-all-possible-worlds outcome, was Ruby blushing as red as her cape and returning to her Scroll, like the time they'd (all) walked in on Yang masturbating. And never spoken of it again. The second plausible outcome was Ruby getting scared or creeped out by Blake's deviant tastes in literature, the younger girl putting up walls of caution between Blake and her until she could re-confirm that her girlfriend was not a degraded pervert.

Blake's tongue twisted in her mouth as she tried to come up with some damage-controlling phrase, something along the lines of ' _Oh, don't worry, I'm not really into that_ ' or ' _Blasphemous filth! How dare this vile pornography corrupt my innocent story!_ ' Nothing sounded plausible in Blake's head, and she had no desire to actually _lie_ to Ruby, even about her sexual habits.

What Blake Belladonna had not expected Ruby to say, when her lips finally parted, was, "That's kind of a weird knot."

Blake tried to think of something to say, but found herself momentarily dumbfounded. She watched as Ruby rotated her head to get a better angle, brow furrowed in concentration. "Can I borrow your bow?" Ruby asked, eyes never leaving the page. Blake, too confused to object, hurriedly unlaced the bow veiling her ears and handed the string of black fabric to Ruby. The younger huntress wordlessly began twirling the cloth deftly through her fingers, teeth biting into her lip as the ribbon was spun into an intricate knot.

Ruby held the knotted ribbon out a few moments later, pressing the lace against the printed knot on Blake's book so as to confirm her handiwork. After a few seconds of stony silence the young girl's face erupted in self-satisfied mirth, and she held out the knot to Blake like it was some sort of trophy. "Ta-da!" declared the huntress, triumphant. "It's a pretty knot!"

"That's… very impressive, Ruby," said Blake, once her head cleared. And truth be told, it was. 'Hyperactive kid' persona notwithstanding there was a very powerful brain inside Ruby Rose's head, a gift for engineering that allowed her to mentally deconstruct Crescent Rose down to its base components in her sleep. With little more than a few second's contemplation she had managed to take a two-dimensional image and realize it in three-dimensional form, which was testament to her amazing mental visualization skills. From her own experiences Blake knew it would've taken her a step-by-step guide and at least half an hour of practice before she could have recreated such a complex knot.

"I've always been good with knots," declared Ruby, her tone devoid of any boasting. "Though I've never seen this… kind of…"

Ruby's face flushed red, and Blake wondered if she was actually _seeing_ the image for the first time. Namely that the knot she had just lovingly recreated was binding the arms of an otherwise-naked ninja-priestess, the angle of the drawing doing nothing for her modesty.

"Yeah… this is kind of a weird section of the book," replied Blake, remembering the damage-control speech she'd been mentally drafting. "I think the author really likes tied up women." ' _Definitely not because he knows his audience, not at all_ ," Blake's inner monologue reminded her, treacherously. 

"It is…. kind of pretty," murmured Ruby. She turned a page of Blake's book, where a full-page illustration lovingly showed how a harness wrapped around a captive ninja's torso. "Looks pretty secure, too."

Blake snorted despite herself, even as she felt a weight lift from her chest. Their lovemaking heretofore had been entirely vanilla, which Blake could've been content with for the rest of her life if need be, but she'd been brainstorming if, when, and how to broaden Ruby's horizons. She hadn't the faintest idea of what Ruby really _liked_ in the bedroom, or even what she was really aware of, so Blake had begun outlining a multi-month campaign to slowly introduce her girlfriend to a range of sexual activities she could optionally partake in. Now, it seemed, the timetable was being hurriedly advanced.

' _Well, no plans survives contact with the enemy._ '

"I think it's more for show than restraint, Ruby," said Blake. "Some people, um, _like_ seeing people tied up… or being tied up."

"I know what _bondage_ is, Blake," said Ruby, a chiding tone in her voice she used when she felt like she was being patronized.

"Right. Of course." _Okay, make sure Yang_ never _knows that she knows_. "Um, how?" she asked, despite her sense of self-preservation.

Ruby let out an annoyed sigh and gestured to her Scroll, which was apparently all the explanation she thought prudent or necessary to convey. "I've just never seen people tied up like this before."

"It's an eastern Mistral thing, I think," said Blake. "It used to be a real martial skill, for when you needed to tie up prisoners. But more recently people decided to make it more pretty than secure, elaborate for the sake of aesthetics."

"You could totally keep someone secure with this," protested Ruby. She turned another page. "See, she's not even _touching_ the ground! No way you're getting out of that."

Another dismissive snort. "If you actually want to tie someone up, you use handcuffs, zipties… tape if you have to. _This_ ," she waved at the pages beneath her, "is just because people like what it does to boobs. It's not practical. Ropes are just for show. "

They sat in silence for several seconds.

"So…" said Ruby, the drawn-out word like the first cautious step into a minefield, finally asking the question Blake knew she'd been mulling, "are you, um, _into_ bondage?"

 _Danger, Blake Belladonna!_ She felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. Her muscles were tense with nervousness, a shouting match raging in her head as she tried to decide the best course of action. ' _At least she was honest enough to_ ask _instead of secretly brooding over it_ ', Blake thought. "…Are you?" she finally asked in retort, her brain apparently settling on a stalling tactic.

"Not fair! I asked you first," Ruby pouted, folding her arms in front of her chest.

Blake sighed. _Alright, Blake, leap of faith time. She didn’t seem_ too _disgusted so she's probably not going to storm out on you. And trust is the bedrock of what you have._ "A little, yeah."

"Okay." Ruby's tone was almost flat, though she was nodding her head slightly. Blake felt the tension building in her chest. "Okay. I mean, as long as you're not planning to kidnap me and lock me in your sex dungeon, or something," said Ruby, with a small laugh.

"Definitely not," promised Blake, exhaling for what felt like the first time in weeks as she hurried to explain herself to Ruby. After all, Blake had absolutely no idea what kind of an image of bondage Ruby had formed from fleeting exposure over her Scroll. "If I do anything it has to be consensual."

"I wasn't worried, Blake," replied Ruby, with that small, honest smile that could melt the polar ice caps. She snuggled up a bit closer to her girlfriend and planted a soft kiss on her cheek, then took one hand in her own, thumbing it softly. "I trust you."

"Right. Of course. I mean… I mean I trust you too, Ruby."

They kissed wordlessly for several minutes, hands playing through hair and beneath shirts and over ears. There were less than a dozen souls in Remnant with whom Blake had entrusted her secret, and Ruby Rose was one of them. And Ruby… Ruby _trusted_ her. Even though she was a faunus, even though she'd been in the White Fang, had lied to her team and then run away from them out of fear. Ruby was forgiving. Or rather, she didn't see anything to forgive. Ruby _cared_ , and was far more empathic than her years suggested. Both girls felt the mantle of responsibility weighing upon them, the losses of their youths having opened their hearts to the needs of others. It was, in retrospect, hardly surprising that they'd been so drawn to one another.

" _So_ ," said Blake, finally breaking off their exchange of kisses, "you didn't answer my question."

"Hm?"

"Are _you_ into bondage?" asked Blake, unable to keep all of the eagerness from her voice.

"Um… not really," replied Ruby with a small smile, kissing Blake shortly after.

"That's perfectly alright," replied Blake, sending a few kisses Ruby's way in return. If she was being perfectly honest with herself - which she at least _tried_ to be - she was a little disappointed. As implausible as it seemed it would've been a pleasant surprise to learn that her partner had some of the same kinks she did. But if Ruby didn't like it then that was a sacrifice Blake was forever willing to make.

"I'm not, like, _disgusted_ by it," clarified Ruby perhaps a minute of kissing later. "Well I mean some stuff I see on pop-ups looks kinda painful."

"There's a spectrum of severity," Blake noted. Ruby was straddling her now, pressing Blake's back into the wall as she launched a patter of peck-like kisses. Blake had confessed a weakness for this position, the way it let her wrap her arms around Ruby's torso and feel Ruby's pressed against her, without limiting her exposure to kisses. "I tend to prefer softer things; not a lot of pain."

"Okay," said Ruby, in a tone of voice suggesting Blake didn't need to explain herself to her. "I mean, I _do_ like trying to escape things. When we were kids Yang would sometimes tie me up and see how long it took me to escape." Ruby let out a smug grin. "I always beat her."

"Some people like trying to escape, some people like being trapped," agreed Blake.

"And which do you like more?"

'I… don't know. I've never done anything in real life."

"Oh?" Ruby's innocent curiosity again. "No girlfriends into bondage?"

"No girlfriends I trusted," Blake conceded. But she couldn't know just how her words would warm Ruby Rose. She couldn't fully appreciate what it was like being one of the youngest Huntresses admitted to Beacon, and to be told _you_ were the first person someone trusted with a secret. In her excitement Ruby couldn't put words to the emotion swelling within her, but it was _pride_.

"If you want," said Ruby, speaking slowly and softly, cautiously drawing out the last word, "I could… I could try tying you up."

"You don't need to, Ruby," said Blake, nuzzling her girlfriend closer to her chest.

"Yeah… but I kind of want to try out the new knot I learned." Ruby gestured to Blake's knotted bow, which she proceeded to toss off the bed on a parabolic trajectory, so it landed on Blake's mattress across the room from her.

"Ruby-" whatever Blake was going to say was interrupted by a kiss. "I don't want to make you uncomfortable just so I can try something new."

"I want to tie you up, pretty sure _you're_ the one whose going to be uncomfortable," said Ruby with a small laugh. Her expression turned slightly more serious for a moment. "And besides, you're always the one whose showing me new things. Maybe I want _you_ to discover something for once."

Ruby's tone was that of a defiant pout, and Blake couldn't think of an intelligence response, so she was forced to concede to her Team Leader's demands. Ruby clasped Blake's hand in hers as she jumped off the bunk bed, pulling her faunus girlfriend down with her. Ruby scurried over to the closet and quickly extracted several lengths of rope they'd acquired before a recent mountaineering expedition. Blake had, privately, already assessed the suitability of the ropes for bondage, if only for her own imagination. Most were too thick or too coarse to make for good restraints, and their lengths generally made them unwieldy, but none of that seemed to deter Ruby.

"I seem to recall you saying that ropes are just for show," said Ruby, a cross expression on her face but an excited tone in her voice. It reminded Blake of the first time Ruby had gone down on her, pumping bravado and confidence into her voice despite her nervousness, eager even when failure was a plausible outcome. It was a little teasing and a little self-deprecating, Ruby painfully aware of the limits of her own familiarity.

"So how do you want to do this?" asked Blake, eager to put the ball in Ruby's court. She doubted Ruby would ever do anything so unpleasant that Blake would want her to stop; she didn't trust herself to do the same to Ruby. Both girls were still wearing their pajamas - Blake in her white-trimmed yukata, Ruby in her tank top and rose-dotted pants. Raindrops softly pelted the window, the only ambient noise Blake's feline ears could detect.

"Put your hands behind your back," Ruby instructed, selecting a shorter length of white rope. "Um, please!" she belatedly appended.

"You're quite the dominatrix, aren't you," teased Blake as she complied, turning her back to Ruby and crossing one wrist over the other. She couldn't see Ruby's blush, but she _could_ imagine her girlfriend in an all-leather ensemble. It was disturbingly adorable.

Her breath hitched a little as Ruby's hands began moving over hers, dexterously sliding the rope into place. Ruby was surprisingly adept, wasting no time binding Blake's hands together and spinning the rope's ends into a complex, and undeniably _pretty_ , knot. With a final tug Ruby proclaimed the knot secure, circling hurriedly around to face Blake.

"Pretty inescapable, don't you think?" she said teasingly. Blake couldn't help but snarl a little as she began testing out the give of the rope, even as she felt the excitement growing within her. Sure enough, no matter which way she shifted, there was no easy way to slip out. Her fingers automatically began reaching around for something to tug on, any length of rope that could be pushed or pulled, but found nothing, at least yet.

"Not bad," agreed Blake, taking a seat on the edge of her own bed. "I don't think I can escape this. At least, not quickly."

"And do you like it?" asked Ruby, this time with the nervousness seeping thickly into her voice.

"…Yes," Blake answered, after a long pause. "It's kind of exciting." It was one thing to express an abstract interest in something, quite another to admit it _felt good_. She could feel herself growing wet from anticipation, excited by the sensation of having her hands pinned behind her back and Ruby being the one to have done it. That wasn't to say she had never imagined their roles reversed, Blake the predator and Ruby the prey, but her current predicament was definitely an enjoyable one.

Ruby took the opportunity to straddle Blake again and kiss her girlfriend passionately, running her hands up and down Blake's arms until she reached the ropes around her wrists, brushing against her fingers with the softest of touches. "It's not too tight?" Ruby murmured, as she felt where rope met skin.

"Not at all," Blake replied, reassuringly. "Just tight enough. I'll let you know if it changes."

Ruby got a lot less innocent after that, hands moving down to Blake's thighs and sliding up the hem of her yukata. It was a small torment, being unable to touch and hold Ruby in turn, but Ruby was a very loving mistress. She repositioned herself so she could better rub Blake's inner thighs, an almost massage-like gesture that further excited the already-wet huntress. Ruby took her own shirt off and tossed it into the corner, giving Blake an unobstructed view of her chest. They'd been fully naked together less than a dozen times, and the site of Ruby's bare skin still made Blake's heart skip a beat or four. After a few wordless exchanges Ruby slid open the folds of Blake's yukata, the ropes preventing her from removing the garment entirely but giving her that much more skin to brush over.

"How does this feel?" asked Ruby, sliding off bed so she could kneel between Blake's legs, softly kissing her inner thighs.

" _Really_ …really good," said Blake, between labored breaths.

"I want to make you happy, Blake," said Ruby between kisses.

"You already... you always do," answered Blake, feeling her body begin to sweat in response to Ruby's ministrations.

But Ruby sensed her opening. Sensed an opportunity to return a long-overdue favor to Blake. Blake was the girlfriend who'd shown Ruby… shown her _everything_ , really. Explained to her everything Signal had skipped over and Yang had been too embarrassed to answer. Shown her what could be done with hands, fingers, tongues. Where to touch and how to do it. Blake had been there, guiding Ruby each step of her sexual self-discovery, and for once Ruby had the opportunity to give Blake something new in return.

Blake almost whimpered when Ruby pulled away. She didn't realize she'd laid down until she opened her eyes and found herself staring at Yang's bunk above. She sat up, desperately wanting to take her panties off but the ropes preventing her from easily doing that. It'd been several days since either girl had had the privacy to indulge in some relief, and Blake felt like a strong breeze would push her over the edge right now.

Ruby returned a second later with a small plastic cable-tie in her hand. Blake recognized it immediately as coming from the box of miscellaneous supplies they'd taken on their mountaineering expedition, the same one they'd gotten the ropes for. Zipties could apparently be used in an emergency if some of the straps on their tent broke, though Blake had mostly eyeballed their utility for future self-bondage. Timing and logistics had conspired against her ever using them, until she saw Ruby threading one end through the ratchet to make a wide loop.

"I can't tighten these on my own," said Ruby sheepishly, as she slipped her hands into the loop behind her back. She slid up beside Blake so the faunus' fingers were brushing against hers. "Can you just hold that end and pull?"

"Ruby, I don't want you to-"

Ruby got the last word, of course, Blake having instinctively clutched the long end of the ziptie, giving Ruby the grip she needed to cinch the loop tight around her wrists. Ruby grinned triumphantly and stood in front of Blake, twirling about so her girlfriend got a good view of the plastic restraints binding Ruby's hands behind her back. The position forced Ruby's chest to jut out a little, something Blake could not refrain from observing, and it seemed to accentuate every muscled curve in the young huntress' bare arms.

Blake was breathing heavily, the site of her short-haired leader tugging fruitlessly at her bonds like something out of a fantasy she didn't dare dream. Ruby might have thought elaborate ropework was pretty but Blake adored bondage of brutal simplicity, how a few well-positioned restraints could completely immobilize a target, how trapped Ruby was by her own design.

Ruby nuzzled herself between Blake's thighs, briefly glancing upwards for permission to continue, before struggling to remove Blake's panties with her teeth. It was graceless and awkward, but Ruby's fumbling motions, endearing in normal circumstances, were now positively tantalizing. Not to mention that from this angle she had an excellent view of Ruby's spine, along with her hands still ziptied behind her back, the excess cable sticking out like a leash waiting to be grasped.

"Normally only _one_ person is tied up," Blake managed to get out, as Ruby popped up from between her legs, triumphantly holding Blake's panties between her teeth like a cat with its prey. Ruby tossed the undergarment aside with a shake of her head.

"Do you like how it feels being tied up?" asked Ruby, planting a kiss against Blake's mons pubis. She was rewarded with a short gasp.

" _Yes_."

"And do you like how I look tied up?"

Ruby stuck her arms out for emphasis as she kissed along Blake's hipbone, trying her best to remember the patterns Blake had previously traced on her. She'd cinched her hands tighter than anticipated, not so tight so as to effect circulation but enough that she felt the cable with every small movement.

" _Oh_ … oh yes," breathed Blake.

"So is there a problem?" Blake may have missed the nuance in her tone, but Ruby was genuinely wondering if she'd just committed some bondage _faux pas_. She knew how many candies had disappointed her by promising ' _two great tastes together_ ' only to be filled with lies and treachery.

"Nothing at all," Blake managed to moan, as Ruby began her oral ministrations in earnest.

Neither Blake nor Ruby would call the latter particularly experienced when it came to oral sex, but enthusiasm went a _long_ way. Ruby's strokes were mostly inarticulate licks that pushed harder and deeper with each passing minute, only infrequently remembering to change up the pattern of her brushes. Blake gyrated her hips in synchronized motion, moaning sensuously at the warmth of Ruby pressing _against_ and _into_ her.

Ruby began to panic several minutes in, though, when she realized neither she nor Blake had their hands free, limiting the number of areas that could be stimulated at once. She tried pressing her nose against Blake's clitoris, rubbing it in gentle circles while her tongue pushed as deep between her folds as it could. Blake, her hands still roped behind her back, began pushing off the bed and into Ruby, the pressure building with each thrust until her legs ended up wrapped around her girlfriend's head.

Ruby was enveloped by Blake entirely but didn't think to relent in her efforts. Blake's scent filled her nostrils, an odor that may as well have been an aphrodisiac, the sight and smell of Blake's excitement motivating her to push harder and faster, mapping out the contours of her girlfriend by tongue alone.

It was with a thunderous, otherworldly groan that Blake climaxed, a crescendo of passion that Ruby had worked so hard to achieve. The Team Leader's face was coated by the time she withdrew from between Blake's thighs, sticky and sweaty and smiling all the more for it.

Ruby pulled herself up to be on the bed next to Blake, lying facedown so as not to lean on her ziptied hands. She lay there for several minutes, listening to Blake's heaving breaths slowly return to normalcy, cuddling up beside her girlfriend as best she could. She eventually resumed her kisses, planting a trail from Blake's collarbone to her jaw to mouth, guiding her back to consciousness with the patter of her lips.

"Is everything good?" asked Ruby, murmuring softly into her girlfriend's ear when she wasn't nibbling on it.

"Oh, man," groaned Blake, shuffling ever so slightly as she became aware again of the feel of her hands bound behind her. Her eyes fluttered open, and she remembered a line from the manga that had gotten her into all this trouble to begin with. "God's in his heaven, all's right with the world."

"I'll take that as a _yes_ ," said Ruby with a laugh, planting one knee on either side of Blake's chest and kissing her lips. Blake moaned appreciatively, sitting up despite the weight of Ruby atop her, then dramatically rolling her neck.

"Do you think you can untie me?" asked Blake with a sheepish grin, gyrating slightly so her bound hands were visible to Ruby. "Or should I get the scissors for you first?"

"I think I can do it," said Ruby, twisting around so the two Huntresses were back to back. And, sure enough, in less than half a minute's awkward fumbling Ruby had untied the knot, the coils falling effortlessly from Blake's arms.

"Thank you," murmured Blake, spending a few seconds rubbing her wrists where the rope had dug into her skin. The pattern would be etched into her skin for hours, if not days, not that she particularly cared right now. Properly freed, though, Blake took Ruby's face in her hands and proceeded to run a patter of kisses across it, Ruby's knees bouncing excitedly at the sensation. Ruby never, _ever_ tired of being kissed.

"Now is there anything _you_ would like, my little ladybug?" asked Blake, her girlfriend giggling slightly at her pet name.

"If it's okay with you," said Ruby, bouncing a little in anticipation. Ruby continued to have difficulty vocalizing her desires, particularly when she wanted something from someone else, whether out of guilt or shyness the faunus still hadn't discerned. They could work on that another day, though, as for now Blake was content to give Ruby what she knew she wanted.

"Alright, let me just cut your hands free," said Blake, glancing around the room as she spoke.

"It's okay!" interjected Ruby, perhaps a little too quickly. "I mean, I'm okay if you want to leave them on for now."

"Now it's about _you_ , Ruby," said Blake, though she made no further move to look around for their scissors.

"I know!" retorted Ruby, a little self-consciously, as she began pressing the bare skin of her back against Blake's chest. Blake was leaning against the wall beside her bed, with Ruby cradled between her legs in front of her, the couple having wordlessly arranging themselves into a position Blake knew Ruby enjoyed. Ruby's hands, bound in the small of her back, pressed gently into Blake's hips. "I mean… I want to try it while I'm tied up a bit. If that's okay."

"Of course it's okay," soothed Blake, catching the note of nervousness in Ruby's voice. Her hands slipped around Ruby's hips and beneath the front of her pajamas, cautiously feeling the wet excitement of her partner. "But if it gets too uncomfortable, promise me you'll ask me to stop, alright."

"I promise!" said Ruby with an earnest grin, her mouth remaining open as Blake began gently stroking her outer folds. Her yukata still open, Blake felt Ruby's back pressed against her breasts, loving the way she practically enveloped her girlfriend.

"Blake?"

" _Mmhm_?" Blake slowed her strokes only slightly.

"Do you have your bow somewhere?"

"Somewhere." Blake cast around and found the ribbon, still knotted. "Yes."

"Is it okay if you blindfold me with it?" Blake paused for a moment, caught off-guard by Ruby's request. "I know the bow's special to you, so never mind if it's awkward or something, we can just-"

"You like my bow?" asked Blake, a note of bemusement in her voice as she hurried to undo Ruby's knot. She planted a series of kisses on the back of Ruby's neck, causing her girlfriend to shiver slightly at the ticklish sensation, before holding the lace out in front of her.

"It's soft and pretty and… _you_. Yours." Ruby cleared her throat, before returning to full motor mouth. "And I mean I've heard if you're blindfolded all your other senses become more sensitive to compensate and I'm wondering if that applies to touch too so this seems like a good way to-"

Ruby fell silent the moment Blake pulled the bow across her eyes, the fabric easily thick enough to block out the light entirely. It was just as soft to the touch as Ruby remembered it, and she let out the quietest of moans as Blake knotted it firmly behind her head.

"Now," cooed Blake, her hands drifting beneath Ruby's pajamas once more, "where were we?"

It didn't take a lot of foreplay to get Ruby into a state of arousal, and the sensation of being tied and blindfolded, all while surrounded by her loving, _incredibly_ sexy girlfriend was more than enough to make her wet with excitement. It was a slightly awkward angle - Blake reaching around Ruby's torso to get to her crotch - but it worked, which was the important part. One massaging hand worked to part Ruby's outer folds, the delicate pressure of her middle and index fingers causing Ruby's breaths to grow heavy with arousal.

Ruby's fingers, still trapped by the ziptie behind her back, began digging into Blake's thigh as the faunus increased the tempo. Once Ruby was fully parted Blake slid her middle finger between her folds with the utmost care, Ruby still hyper-sensitive to any intrusion. Her head began rocking softly as Blake's finger curled and stroked her inner walls, the knotted ends of her blindfold swaying with every movement.

With her free hand Blake began deftly circling Ruby's clitoris, pressure growing with each circular stroke until Ruby was practically grinding herself on Blake's hand. Blake leaned back, bucking her own hips slightly to apply all the more pressure to her girlfriend, before gently sinking her teeth into Ruby's neck-

The exhilaration of a sexual adventure, the pressure of Blake's fingers and the possessiveness of her bite conspired to push Ruby over the edge, causing her to let out a coarse shout of orgasmic pleasure. Ruby practically shuddered against Blake as waves of pleasure coursed from her neck to her crotch, her body twisting and gyrating to ride the sensation for as long as possible.

Perhaps a minute later, Blake reluctantly released her toothy hold on Ruby, pulling her finger out of Ruby with the delicacy of a bomb defuser. Ruby let out a decadent moan as Blake withdrew her sticky hand, wiping it on Ruby's pajama pants before encircling her girlfriend's waist.

"That was…. pretty fun," Ruby managed to groan out, once she was able to form words again. As much as Blake was curious to know if the restraints had heightened Ruby's experience or been a mere curiosity, she didn't want to ruin the moment by interrogating her girlfriend.

"I'm happy you felt like trying something new," replied Blake, planting a string of kisses where teeth marks remained imprinted. "But you don't have to do it again if you don't want to, okay?"

There was a pause of several seconds, before Ruby pierced the silence with a single, heartfelt word. "Blake."

"Yes, my ladybug?"

"Can I see your eyes?"

Blake kicked herself for forgetting to remove the blindfold, so entranced had she been with the aesthetics of the black stripe slashing across her lover's visage. The last thing she wanted Ruby to think was that she was obsessed with keeping her in bondage for as long as humanly possible. The ribbon fell from her face a moment later, Ruby awkwardly shuffling around to face Blake. Her hands were still bound behind her back, but the way she'd pinned Blake against the wall kept her from getting up and finding the damn scissors.

Her self-criticism was put on hold, however momentarily, as she saw Ruby's steel-grey eyes peer into hers, a smile of infinite softness on her face. In that moment Blake knew that Ruby _saw_ her, saw her hopes and fears, her desires and hatreds, the whirlwind of emotions and experiences that combined to make Blake... _Blake_. She saw the faunus and the Huntress, the White Fang agent and the lonely student, all the facets of her that made such a beautiful crystal that Ruby Rose would never want to lose.

"I love you, Blake," said Ruby, and there was no trace of the awkward adolescent in her voice, the words as pure as the night air.

They kissed, Blake clutching Ruby's shoulders as their lips pressed fervently against each other.

"I love you too, Ruby," murmured Blake in response.

"I know," exclaimed Ruby with a teasing grin, shattering the tension like a blow from Magnhild.

They kissed and wrestled for several minutes, the zipties giving Blake an unfair advantage that Ruby would never have dared protest.

Blake finally found the scissors and cut Ruby free, noting with some concern how the band had visibly dug into her girlfriend's skin. They cuddled under the sheets for several minutes, lips and legs intertwined, until Blake insisted they go back to Ruby's bed to sleep, her faunus nose far more appreciative of the way Ruby's body scented her sheets. The lights turned off, Scrolls and books and fantasies of future escapades banished for the duration of their blanketed snuggles, culminating in Blake's strong, lithe arms cradling Ruby's form. Questions about if they'd go any further, whether that'd been a one-off occurrence or soon to be a staple of their sex...those were questions Blake actually didn't need answered right now.

Blake was happy. Ruby was happy. Blake was happy that Ruby was happy, and the reverse was also true. Her girlfriend drifted into slumber soon enough, and Blake was left staring at the rain-streaked window, the shattered Moon floating lazily in the night sky.

Trust, it turned out, could be pretty damn rewarding.

**Author's Note:**

> FEEDBACK IS ALWAYS WELCOME. Likes, dislikes, do you agree with my character interpretations or hate them? Smut good or terrible? Feedback really is the only thing that keeps me writing, and it doesn't matter how long ago I wrote the work, all comments are appreciated.
> 
> Was bored, wrote this when realizing that there are a paucity of proper Ladybug fics on either AO3 or FF. Written a little faster and a little more tired than I normally am. Originally wanted to include more proper shibari material but (a) I don't actually know that much about it and (b) it didn't keep with the setting of early in the Ladybug relationship. As usual, I have no idea what to title things.
> 
> "Fun" Fact - Ladybug was my first ever RWBY ship, back when I still barely knew the names of the characters. To my own mild surprise, I've never religiously shipped anyone, even if I tend to drift towards Monochrome, Freezerburn and Bee's Schnees. I seem to like (almost) any pairing if a decent job is done exploring the how and why.
> 
> Yes, there's one real, not-at-all-subtle anime reference in there. Next story, Blake makes Ruby watch twenty-four episodes and one movie of a decade-old anime in order to forcibly broaden her horizons, or possibly just fuck with her.


End file.
